CFP: XIX International Sociological Association World Congress «Money, Capital and Modern Life: Building Conceptual Bridges Between Marx and Simmel» (Toronto 2018)

Eleonora Cugini // Ott 3, 2017

We are glad to announce that the XIX International Sociological Association World Congress about «Money, Capital and Modern Life: Building Conceptual Bridges Between Marx and Simmel» will be held in Toronto in 2018 .

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CALL FOR PAPER

The year 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth and the 100th anniversary of Georg Simmel’s death. This occasion presents a timely opportunity to reflect on the relation between their works.

The relevance of Marx’s writings to Simmel’s oeuvre is often alluded to, but the precise extent of this influence still calls for further exploration. The continuities are most striking at the level of the diagnosis of modern society: Marx’s analyses of alienation, commodity fetishism, and capital’s quantifying and accelerating tendencies are not only critically discussed but also expanded in Simmel’s investigations of the paradoxes of modern culture, to the point that the latter’s work could appear to a contemporary reader as a psychological counterpart to Capital. These diagnoses, however, were formulated on very different philosophical and political foundations: whereas Marx relied on the tradition of Left Hegelianism, English political economy, and French socialism, Simmel dialogued mainly with neo-Kantianism, neoclassical economics, and vitalism. To what extent, then, do Simmel’s investigations on money supplement, widen or contradict Marx’s analysis of capital? Do their different philosophical and methodological starting points prevent a productive dialogue between their arguments? How to reconcile Marxian analyses of class and exploitation with Simmel’s focus on pathologies affecting the totality of modern individuals? In what way can the confrontation between their perspectives become relevant for current sociology and social philosophy?

This panel welcomes contributions that reflect on these or other aspects of the relation between Marx and Simmel.

Anyone interested in presenting a paper should submit an abstract on-line through a centralized website open from April 25 through September 30, 2017, 24:00 GMT.
The abstract text cannot contain more than 300 words and must be submitted in English, French or Spanish.

Submitters will be informed by November 30, 2017, whether their papers have been accepted for presentation.

Detailed submission guidelines are online.
For further enquiries or informations you can contact the panel organizer: Mariana Teixeira (mariana.on.teixeira@gmail.com)